On December 28th at 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2; then: “People & Powers: Decades in Red-White-Red – The 80s”
Vienna (OTS) – The “kreuz und quer” special edition “Church History in Red-White-Red: The König Era” by Christian Rathner traces Franz König’s career on Thursday, December 28, 2023 at 10:30 p.m. on ORF 2 and shows the achievements of his time in office as well as the sobering end of an era: with Hans Hermann Groër, the Roman Catholic Church in Austria slipped into the “most serious crisis since 1945”, according to the words of the Graz church historian Michaela Sohn-Kronthaler. Wolfgang Stickler’s “People & Powers” documentary “Decades in Red-White-Red – The 80s” follows at 11:15 p.m.
“criss-cross” special: “Church history in red-white-red: The King era”
He was one of Austria’s defining figures in the 20th century:
Cardinal Franz König. He campaigned for reconciliation between the Catholic Church and workers. And the Roman Catholic Church, which had entered into an alliance with the authoritarian corporate state in the interwar period, finally freed itself from party-political dependence. König made contacts with countries behind the Iron Curtain and was a sought-after interlocutor in interreligious dialogue around the world. As such, he also advocated for a new relationship between the Roman Catholic Church and Judaism during the Second Vatican Council. As head of the Vatican Secretariat for Non-Believers, he initiated a department for atheism research at the University of Vienna and, as a man of ecumenism, founded the “Pro Oriente” Foundation.
In addition to the church historian Michaela Sohn-Kronthaler, the documentary features, among others, the Viennese church historian Rupert Klieber, the social historian Florian Wenninger, the Protestant church historian Leonhard Jungwirth, the journalist and author Herbert Lackner (“When Schnitzler argued with the Chancellor”) and the theologian and atheism researcher Johann Figl (“Life after 1945”) has his say. Annemarie Fenzl, König’s long-time employee and head of the Cardinal König Archive, provides personal and previously little-known insights.
“People & Powers: Decades in Red-White-Red – The 80s”
The 1980s are the decade of crises and scandals. Bruno Kreisky resigns in 1983 and his legacy crumbles. Steel crisis, economic downturn and international recession end the Austrian path in economic policy. The subsequent social-liberal coalition of SPÖ and FPÖ is quite often busy with solving problems: the Hainburg conflict, the Waldheim affair, the wine scandal. Added to this are the effects of the Chernobyl nuclear disaster. Cardinal König is followed by Hans Hermann Groër. From 1986 onwards, the new FPÖ leader Jörg Haider turned a right-wing, partly academic, small, medium-sized notable party into a steadily growing protest movement. The affairs of the 1980s led to an erosion of political credibility. Political grievances and growing awareness of the dark sides of growth and prosperity promote the strengthening of civil society and its publicity factor. Citizens’ movements become political parties. After the Hainburg crisis, “The Greens” come into parliament. The computer age began in the mid-80s. At the end of the decade there is a new global order: the Eastern Bloc and Warsaw Pact are collapsing.